wingnut1814
Member
I am sure it was to get the price point down. The "E" Series are less than half the price of the "A" Series ($2500 v. $1000)
64GB "A" Series Cards
- Thread starter wingnut1814
- Start date
GRENCH
Well-known member
You know what a 1st I believed that but now I'm not sure. It was a great business move. Put the cheaper cards out there and see if they bite. Once they do start discontinuing the large capacity card for the newer cheaper and limited use cards. They realized that they made the 1st batch of P2 card too good. The cards will out last the camera, lol. It is what it is. Price point is just a smoke screen. They will make more off of the limited cards over time. But that's just my opinion. Nothing more. Still love Panasonic. Just don't like them discontinuing such a great product is all.
I have five 16g A cards, which works fine for me with the 500... With the two slot 200, it can be problematic if I'm shooting 1080 and not careful. So I had considered acquiring a couple of larger A cards. I dodn't mind the extra cost for the As, because I like the comfort factor of knowing the cards are working.
Which brings up an interesting question - what happens when the rewrite cycle "expires" on the E card? Is there a warning in the viewfinder, or does it just stop recording without your knowledge? Probably no one has had this happen yet, but it would be good to know.
Which brings up an interesting question - what happens when the rewrite cycle "expires" on the E card? Is there a warning in the viewfinder, or does it just stop recording without your knowledge? Probably no one has had this happen yet, but it would be good to know.
Spec-Comm
DVXuser Sponsor
Hope to clarify some things about the E series cards:
The E Series P2 cards are made with a different type of flash memory. They use multi cell flash memory. The A and older P2 cards use single cell flash memory. The multi cell flash memory (E Series) holds more data and reduces the unit price per byte, and it offers fewer overwrites than single cell (A Series) flash memory does.
In essence: It costs less to make but can only be rewritten but so many times.
The quality, reliability, recording capacity, and compatibility are the same. The transfer rate is faster.
"A notification is given (in the camcorder’s LCD/viewfinder or the P2 recorder’s display) as the card approaches the end of its life cycle. Details of the card’s remaining usable life cycle can also be displayed and tracked on a computer via the P2 formatter software (available for download on www.panasonic.com/broadcast)."
The quality of the cards are the same, but because they are made with a different type of flash memory, the E Series cards are limited in the number of rewrites. It's newer, different technology that is cheaper to make.
How many rewrites? Panasonic figured that if you used the card one every day at full capacity (100%), it would be five years before the flash memory cells started to fail. Five years is not a set in stone date from when you buy your card. They also estimated that used at half capacity (50%) daily would last 10 years +. In most applications, P2 cards are not used on a daily basis.
If you figure, five years ago, the only cards that were available were 4GB (list 650.00) and 8GB (list 2200.00). There are still 8GB cards in use, and very few 4GB cards, but most of them have been replaced in favor of 16, 32, or even 64GB. Over the next five years, how many of the current E Series cards will have been replaced by a much larger card?
No problem there!
As a dealer, I can tell you that once the cheaper E Series cards were released, interest in the A Series cards dropped to almost nothing. B&H had to liquidate their A Series cards at a loss (almost 50%) after the E Series cards started to ship.
The different releases were named with manufacturing codes, they weren't sequential... it was H, R, A, now E. If I had to guess, E is probably for economy...
Best,
Jasmine Moore
Administrative Assistant
Specialized Communications / Noventri
20940 Twin Springs Dr.
Smithsburg, MD 21783-1510 USA
800-359-1858 (US)
301-790-0103
Fax: 301-790-0173
jasminem@spec-comm.com
www.spec-comm.com
www.noventri.com
The E Series P2 cards are made with a different type of flash memory. They use multi cell flash memory. The A and older P2 cards use single cell flash memory. The multi cell flash memory (E Series) holds more data and reduces the unit price per byte, and it offers fewer overwrites than single cell (A Series) flash memory does.
In essence: It costs less to make but can only be rewritten but so many times.
The quality, reliability, recording capacity, and compatibility are the same. The transfer rate is faster.
"A notification is given (in the camcorder’s LCD/viewfinder or the P2 recorder’s display) as the card approaches the end of its life cycle. Details of the card’s remaining usable life cycle can also be displayed and tracked on a computer via the P2 formatter software (available for download on www.panasonic.com/broadcast)."
The quality of the cards are the same, but because they are made with a different type of flash memory, the E Series cards are limited in the number of rewrites. It's newer, different technology that is cheaper to make.
How many rewrites? Panasonic figured that if you used the card one every day at full capacity (100%), it would be five years before the flash memory cells started to fail. Five years is not a set in stone date from when you buy your card. They also estimated that used at half capacity (50%) daily would last 10 years +. In most applications, P2 cards are not used on a daily basis.
If you figure, five years ago, the only cards that were available were 4GB (list 650.00) and 8GB (list 2200.00). There are still 8GB cards in use, and very few 4GB cards, but most of them have been replaced in favor of 16, 32, or even 64GB. Over the next five years, how many of the current E Series cards will have been replaced by a much larger card?
No problem there!
As a dealer, I can tell you that once the cheaper E Series cards were released, interest in the A Series cards dropped to almost nothing. B&H had to liquidate their A Series cards at a loss (almost 50%) after the E Series cards started to ship.
The different releases were named with manufacturing codes, they weren't sequential... it was H, R, A, now E. If I had to guess, E is probably for economy...
Best,
Jasmine Moore
Administrative Assistant
Specialized Communications / Noventri
20940 Twin Springs Dr.
Smithsburg, MD 21783-1510 USA
800-359-1858 (US)
301-790-0103
Fax: 301-790-0173
jasminem@spec-comm.com
www.spec-comm.com
www.noventri.com
GRENCH
Well-known member
And that's my point. It is exactly what I thought would happen the minute I read about these cheaper (cost) limited life cards. If I thought that there is no way Panny didn't predict the same thing before bringing these cards to market. It is what it is. Like I said I love Panasonic. I just don't like it when good companies pull cheap moves like this. A series P2 cards are a great product. To settle for less is just crazy. I own 4 16GB A SERIES and 2 8GB A SERIES. Was looking forward to buying a 64gb but that looks a little far fetched now.